Texas State is furthering next year’s Common Experience theme of sustainability through a partnership, which will bring in millions of dollars for research funding.
Ravi Droopad, professor in the physics department, is working with MicroPower Global, a privately-owned company interested in “green energy” technologies. The company is relocating its operation to San Marcos.
MicroPower Global is trying to develop a microchip that can turn waste heat energy into electricity, according to Droopad.
“This is a thermo-electric material,” Droopad said. “It will take waste heat from plane engines of aircrafts, exhaust pipes of vehicles and generate electricity using the heat.”
Droopad said he expects the joint venture will bring growth to Central Texas.
“We can make this area conducive enough for companies to come and put their roots here,” Droopad said. “Our Ph.D. program trains people, not only to learn what they’re doing here, but encourage them to create new industries. A lot of companies now are looking at new technology.”
Terry Golding, chair for Materials Sciences, called the partnership a no-brainer.
“For MicroPower Global, not only was there the equipment, but these extensive facilities and the faculty with the technical know-how,” Golding said.
Droopad said the equipment alone puts the university at a great advantage to both students and commercial companies looking to invest in emerging technology research.
“We’ve got a system that not many people in the world have,” Droopad said. “Because of the equipment and know-how we have here, we find ourselves attracting a lot of high-tech companies.”
Ali Murdoch, chief executive officer for MicroPower, said Texas State’s equipment and professional talent attracted his company. He said MicroPower has the science behind the chip, but needs Texas State’s resources to build it.
The groundwork for MicroPower Global to invest $3 million toward the university’s research comes three years in the making.
“We decided that we wanted to make Texas State have a higher research profile as an institution,” Golding said.
The Governor’s Office gave Texas State $4 million from the Emerging Technology Fund, which the university matched. Droopad came to work for the university two years ago from Freescale Semiconductor and Motorola with approximately $10 million worth of equipment, including a Molecular Beam Epitaxy machine.
A Molecular Beam Epitaxy machine takes atoms and molecules from existing materials and creates new crystals in film layers. The new crystals can be manipulated to have different properties including heat conductivity.
“We grow them (the crystals) in different layers and, by varying the thickness of its layers and adding different atoms, we vary its composition and properties,” Droopad said. “We can use those properties to take heat from a source and convert it to electricity.”
Droopad said in addition to MicroPower Global, other companies and agencies are looking into the commercial aspects of research done at the university.
“We’re looking at developing new sensor technology that can be used in military devices, applications, new radar technology, biological sensors, radioactive sensors and communication devices,” Droopad said. “We will be working with the industry to look at the next generation of devices.”
